1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are laborers together with God: you are God's husbandry, you are God's building. I. IN SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY. Now it is the province of the husbandman to plant and to water, but neither dexterity in planting can ensure the striking of the root, nor diligence in watering command the ripening of the fruit. In the spiritual husbandry of the Church all is God's; the field — the world; the plants — men; the instruments wherewith the clods are broken — the appointed ordinances Of grace; the plan for the direct combination of labour — His Word; the water — the purifying influence of His Spirit; the sunbeams — the quickening and cheering manifestations of His love. As in nature the husbandman "waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience, until he receive the early and latter rain," relying implicitly on the Divine pledge, so the faithful minister of Christ pursues his spiritual husbandry in patience and in faith. II. IN SPIRITUAL BUILDING. Here, too, the labour is of man, but the power of God. In the spiritual temple of the Church the foundation is of God's laying, the material of God's preparing, the plan of God's contriving, the proportions of God's adjusting; and if ministers of Christ may be said, in the gathering or the raising, in the cementing or compacting, in the edifying or carrying up, m the roofing or covering in, to "build up lively stones into a spiritual temple, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ," yet the quickening, pervading power of God is continually recognised throughout. For what could impart life to the stone except a miracle of grace? Conclusion: From this, then, it will follow that while, with St. Paul, we exalt the office of the Christian ministry, at the same time, with St. Paul, we abase the individuals who exercise it. Let them be, like Apollos, "mighty in the Scriptures"; let them be, like St. Paul, mightier still in "signs and wonders," &c., yet, like Paul and Apollos, in themselves they are nothing. (T. Dale, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.WEB: For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's farming, God's building. |
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